Usually, when the package is payment for something. Under US federal rules, a product, trip or service a brand gives you in return for a post, a review, an appearance or usage rights is income at its fair market value, just as cash would be: IRS Publication 525 says you include in income, at the time received, the fair market value of property or services received in bartering. A box that arrives with no request, no agreement and nothing expected is less clear, because true gifts are generally not income, yet the IRS has said promotional gift bags are not gifts for tax purposes. Log every package either way.
The rules the IRS applies to products and trips
Publication 525 opens by saying income can come in the form of money, property or services, and that an amount is generally taxable unless the law specifically exempts it. Its bartering section is the closest fit for a PR deal: when you exchange your work for property or services, the fair market value of what you receive is income in the year you receive it, generally reported on Schedule C. The worked example is a self-employed attorney paid in company shares, who includes the value of the shares as business income. A skincare set sent for a sponsored video sits in the same place as those shares.
The publication applies the same logic elsewhere. Someone who receives a free tour for organising a group of tourists must include its value in income. Prizes and awards paid in goods or services are included at fair market value, although a prize you refuse is not. And the IRS's Topic 420 on bartering income confirms that barter received in connection with your business generally goes on Schedule C.
On gifts, Publication 525 says that in most cases property you receive as a gift is not income. The difficulty is deciding whether a brand's box is a gift at all. The IRS's gift bag questions and answers, written for awards-show swag and now marked as historical content, says such bags are not gifts because the merchants giving them do not do so solely out of affection, respect or similar impulses. Brands sending products to creators are rarely acting from affection either.
Gift or payment: a decision table
The IRS has no page written for creators' PR packages, so this table applies the general rules above to common situations. Where the right answer depends on facts, it says so.
| What happened | Likely treatment | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Product sent under an agreement to post, review or tag | Income at fair market value when received | Property received for your services, the bartering rule |
| Cash fee plus product in one campaign | Both are income; only the cash may appear on a 1099 | The product is part of what you were paid |
| Flights, hotel nights or event access in return for coverage | Income at the fair market value of what you used | Services received for services, like the free-tour example |
| Voucher for a trip or treatment that you redeem | Income at the value of the trip or service once redeemed | The gift bag answers treat redeemed vouchers this way |
| Unsolicited box, no request, no agreement, never featured | Unclear; get advice before treating it as a gift | Gifts are generally excluded, but promotional gifts may not be gifts |
| Unsolicited box that you then feature in content | Treat as income unless your adviser concludes otherwise | Featuring it can look like the exchange the sender hoped for |
| Review unit you must send back | Ask your adviser; record the loan terms and the return | You did not keep the property, but use rights can still have value |
| Package refused or returned unopened | Keep proof of the refusal or return | Returning unwanted items is the cleanest record of not accepting them |
| Prize from a brand giveaway you entered | Income at fair market value unless you refuse it | The prizes and awards rule |
| Present from a friend or relative | Generally not income | A personal gift, not a business exchange |
The unsolicited rows are where advisers disagree. The Journal of Accountancy's guide to taxing influencers, written by CPAs for practitioners, notes that the IRS has issued almost no guidance in this area, that many advisers do not treat promoted products as gifts, and that returning an item you will not use is the cleanest way to avoid extra income to report.
Working out fair market value
Publication 525 defines fair market value as the price at which property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being required to act and both knowing the relevant facts. Two shortcuts help. Its bartering section says that when both sides agree the value of services ahead of time, that value is accepted unless it can be shown to be otherwise, and IRS Publication 551 says the same about property received for services performed at a price agreed beforehand.
In practice, the best evidence is usually a value the brand stated in the brief, contract or packing slip. Next best is the price the same item sold for on the day it arrived, with a dated screenshot. For a trip, value each part you used, such as flights, nights and passes, at what a member of the public would have paid. Do the work when the package arrives; a price looked up months later is a guess about a page that has changed.
Questions to settle before you say yes
Most tax uncertainty about PR comes from deals agreed in a direct message with nothing written down. A short reply to the brand before anything ships answers most of the questions in the decision table.
- Is a post, story, review or tag expected, and by when? If yes, treat the package as payment from the start.
- Does the brand want usage rights, whitelisting or exclusivity? Those are services with value of their own, and they belong in a written agreement.
- What retail value does the brand put on the package? Ask for it in writing, because an agreed value is the strongest evidence you can have.
- Can you send it back if it is not a fit, and who pays the return postage?
- Is any cash fee involved, and will the brand ask for a W-9 and send a 1099 for it?
- Is the item yours to keep, or a sample that has to be returned after the review?
The same facts drive disclosure. The FTC's Disclosures 101 for social media influencers says a brand giving you free or discounted products is a material connection, and that you should disclose it when you then mention one of its products, even if you were not asked to. That is a consumer-protection rule rather than a tax rule, but a post you disclosed as gifted is also a record of the exchange your log should capture.
Fair market value log template
Keep one row per package or trip. A spreadsheet with these columns covers what an adviser will ask for.
| Column | What to record |
|---|---|
| Date received | The day it arrived or the first day of the trip, which sets the tax year |
| Sender | Brand, agency or PR firm, plus the contact who arranged it |
| Item or service | Product names and quantities, or each component of a trip |
| What was asked in return | Posts, tags, codes, usage rights, attendance, or “nothing stated” with the email that says so |
| What you delivered | Links to the content and the dates it went live, or a note that you did not feature it |
| Fair market value | Your figure and the evidence behind it: agreed value, stated retail value or a dated price screenshot |
| What happened to it | Kept for the business, kept personally, returned, given away or donated |
| Form received | Any 1099 that includes the item, and the amount shown |
| Adviser note | How your tax professional told you to treat the doubtful rows |
Reporting it when no form arrives
Most PR packages produce no paperwork. The instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC set the usual threshold at $2,000 for tax years beginning after 2025, so a single product deal often falls below it, and the gift bag answers only tell distributors to check those instructions. A missing form does not change your position: the IRS's filing tips for gig economy workers say income must be reported even when no information return arrives and when it is paid in property or goods.
If you are in business as a creator, the value goes into Schedule C gross receipts with your cash income, under the activity code you chose; our guide to the content creator business code covers that choice. Which forms your cash income arrives on is mapped in what tax forms content creators get.
Using, donating or selling the item later
- Using it in the business. Publication 551 says the amount you include in income for property received for services becomes your basis in it. A camera you were paid with and now film on is not a fresh purchase you can deduct; ask your adviser how its basis is recovered.
- Donating it. The gift bag answers say a donation to a qualified charity may give a charitable deduction, subject to limits, but the value must still be reported as income.
- Selling it. A later sale is a separate event measured against your basis, so keep the log row that set it.
The cleanest fix for future years is upstream: put product value in writing when you agree a deal. Our guides to how influencers get paid for brand deals and the influencer media kit template help you price and document product-only offers before they arrive.
Limitations of this guide
This covers US federal income tax only, using IRS publications and pages checked on 1 October 2026. The IRS has not published creator-specific guidance on PR packages, so the decision table applies general rules to situations they do not name, and the gift bag answers are archival. State tax, sales tax and the rules in Australia, the UK and elsewhere are different and are not covered here.
Bring your log to a CPA or enrolled agent each year and agree a consistent approach to the doubtful rows before you file. If you are an Australian resident with US brand deals, a registered tax agent should see the same log.